The Penderel's Oak (JD Wetherspoon), Holborn, WC1

A fairly standard London 'Spoons set on the ground floor of a modern building which is mostly office block, comprising a single L-shaped bar and a small outside terrace at the back. Nine ales on draft and one 'Coming Soon'. I had a pint of Brewster's Et Citra, which wasn't to my taste particularly, but it was in good condition and served at a decent temperature, ironic considering this is one ale that possibly could benefit from being a bit cooler. It's a contrast to the other local pubs in that it isn't as pretentious, and the clientele are a fairly ordinary bunch. The staff were OK but notably foreign, and the WiFi worked. I'd be happy to drop in again for a pint when passing and I'd include on a crawl.

Large Wetherspoon's with a cellar bar. There always seems to be a fair selection of real ales but none seem to be very inspiring,just the run of the mill stuff.

This pub is made up of the Ground Floor and Basement of an office block named after some bloke who hid someone in a tree a very long time ago. It is actually a Lloyds No 1 which presumably means there is music in the evening. I arrived just before 11:00 on a Friday morning, when despite the Central London location and higher prices there was still the odd daytime Spoons type present. The building is well described previously and I thought was wholly uninspiring. The twelve pumps had GK IPA and Abbot, two London Pride, Adnam's Broadside, six festival beers, unusually a perry and Adnam's / Pretty Things Jack D'Or. I went for the "American" Jack D'Or (£3.35) which was rather cloudy and certainly not at it's best. The pub has been GBG listed for many years and is in the 2014 edition. The beer quality was totally disappointing for a GBG listed pub. It seems to me that despite the much higher prices Central London Spoons are inferior to their suburban equivalent, maybe they are just too busy to cope with everything that needs to be done.